35 years ago, Paul Lumos undertook his greatest career achievement. He started his own engineering firm. At the time he was the City Engineer for Carson City, and he knew the importance of a proper foundation. He also had a vision for sustainability. Paul did it right. And the company is now celebrating 35 years of progress and excellence.

35 years and still building…

In 1978 when Paul was getting started, I graduated from high school. I had no premonition that Paul was putting a plan into place to grow leaders in his company that would one day carry on its future and include myself as CEO.

Carl Cavolick, one of Paul’s first employees, joined the firm in 1980 and was Paul’s right hand. Carl was responsible for managing the Carson City office and bringing the geotechnical and lab services capabilities to the firm.

Buzz Fitzpatrick joined the firm in 1987 starting the Fallon office as a survey outpost, which later developed into a small full-service location with a lab and engineering services. Buzz continued on to become the company’s Chief Financial Officer and retired in 2011 making his death in 2013 all the more somber.

Chas Macquarie was hired in 1988 and was eventually given the task of building the Reno office which has become the company’s largest producing office. Upon Paul’s retirement, Chas became our Chief Executive Officer and then stepped down from the position in 2012 to focus on what he really enjoys…designing trails and bike paths.

Paul, Carl and Chas made key hires that have now been with the company 15 plus years and have taken the reigns as a third generation of leadership.

35 years and still competing.

Since day one, it has been important for Lumos & Associates to enjoy working together, playing together, often enjoying friendly competition as well as maintaining ongoing community involvement.

We’re a quality firm; recognized by our peers as a firm that produces outstanding projects and provides personal service to our clients. This year we were recognized by the Nevada Chapter of the American Public Works Association for the work we have done on the Eureka Airport Project, and we will move into the next round to compete nationally.

We are socially responsible and active in our communities. Many of our employees volunteer to sit on Boards and Commissions or serve in civic or community service organizations. We also serve our community through involvement in professional and service organizations. And in our 35th year, we received recognition from the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce as the Healthiest Place to Work in northern Nevada, which is a testament to our active workforce and our work-life balance culture. We do many things together, including our annual Reno Tahoe Odyssey Relay Race and many enjoy our annual Flume Trail Ride which also contributes to our healthy work environment.

The future is bright; we have an energized leadership team, an excellent group of employees and a great group of clients. Our vision is to focus on company growth in order to maintain our long term sustainability. We have recognized that our greatest opportunity for company growth will come from expansions into new geographical areas and as such, we are actively searching for these new opportunities.

With the hard work of our employees and our leadership team I have no doubt that in another 35 years some fortunate CEO will be able to write about Lumos’ 70-year history.

Lumos & Associates has offices in Carson City, Reno, Fallon, and Tahoe, each with a full range of engineering and surveying services. Lumos' Carson City, Reno, and Fallon offices have fully equipped materials testing laboratories.

Lumos & Associates began with a large emphasis in municipal engineering and public works engineering. Today, Lumos boasts major industrial, commercial and residential development clients and key personnel whose expertise include government process, infrastructure design, planning, civil engineering, structural engineering and construction management.